Bar Shu - The Heat is On!

Name: Bar Shu

Where: 28 Frith Street, Soho, London W1D 5LF, http://www.barshurestaurant.co.uk

Cost: Appetisers range from £6.90 to £12.90, with an appetiser platter for 2 costing £24.90. Vegetable, fish and meat dishes to share are priced from £9.90 to £32.90 for lobster with sizzling spices.

About: The first of a quartet of Sichuanese restaurants in Soho opened by restauranteur Shao Wei with consultancy from Fuschia Dunlop, its sister restaurants include Ba Shan (reviewed here), Baozi Inn and Baiwei (reviewed here). Bar Shu, at the busy corner between Frith and Romilly Streets, is the flagship of the group, with quality of cooking and prices to match. 

It has a restful aesthetic of varnished wood floors and tables, with flashes of bright red from the lanterns, paintings and even the bottles on display behind the bar. There are huge plate glass windows across the full width of the restaurant, giving excellent views of the hustle and bustle of Soho.

Bar Shu serves food from Sichuan in southwest China, characterized by fiery spiciness, with liberal use of chillies and lip-tingling Sichuan pepper. Bar Shu offers a menu of seductive 'fish fragrant' combinations of pickled chillies, ginger, garlic and spring onion, as well as 'numbing and hot' flavoured dishes, and the refreshing tones of 'ginger juice' sauces.

What We Ate: Sichuanese meals traditionally begin with a set of cold appetisers, designed to arouse the senses as our waitress explained. With that in mind, we opted for a range of appetisers to explore hot, sweet and spicy aspects of the cuisine, as well as a range of textures from crunchy to glutinous. 

As is typical of the region, all our appetisers were served at once. They included Northern Sichuan Pea Jelly - strips of peastarch jelly in a sauce made from black beans, chilli oil and vinegar (£7.90). A famous Sichuanese snack, the jelly is neutral in flavour, but soaks up the lovely umami flavour from the black beans, while peanuts give a nice crunchy texture.

Sweet and sour spare ribs (£8.90) were also delicious - served cold, they had a touch of ginger, with sweet and sour undertones making them very refreshing.

The cloud ear fungus with coriander and chillies (£6.90) consisted for crunchy black fungus (akin to mushrooms), served with a delicate sour and hot dressing and laced with sliced fiercely hot red chillies.

One of my favourite appetisers were the thinly sliced pork rolls with finely julienned carrots and daikon in a spicy garlic sauce (£8.90).

The Man-and-Wife Tripe dish, named after a couple of Chengdu street vendors of the 1930s came highly recommended by our waitress and it did not disappoint. This consisted of mixed beef tripe with peanuts in a rather spicy sauce (£7.90).

I love smacked cucumbers (£6.90), and Bar Shu's version had preserved mustard greens, garlic and sesame sauce, and were delicious.

The sliced whelk with green Sichuan pepper (£10.90) were served with fresh red and green peppers in a delicious wasabi dressing. The slivers of finely cut raw celery gave a good crunchy texture and made the dish quite refreshing and well balanced.

For our main course, we went for the signature dish of boiled seabass with beansprouts and sizzling chilli oil (£28.90). A spectacular dish of tender fish and aromatic spices, with dried chillies and Sichuan peppercorns, this was an excellent centrepiece for our meal.

The custom is not to eat the chillies, and our waitress removed them before serving. The seabass had wonderfully fragrant, tender flesh with citrus flavours entirely from the Sichuan peppercorns.

Our second main course was Gong Bao prawns with cashew nuts (£18.90). Mildly spicy with garlic, chilli, Sichuan pepper and celery, this dish had huge prawns that were very meaty but meltingly tender. It was delicious, and definitely a crowd pleaser.

To accompany our fish and seafood course, we had three vegetable dishes:

Fish-fragrant aubergines braised with minced pork (£9.90) is one of my favourite vegetable dishes to eat in Sichuanese restaurants.  The term 'fish-fragrant' used to describe Sichuanese sauces is a technically a misnomer because there is no fish in it, but it refers to the spices used to cook fish. With vinegar, ginger and very mild chilli, the aubergines had a refreshing flavour, while being tender and luscious without disintegrating. A real winner.

The dry-fried green beans (£9.90), cooked with minced pork and ya çai (a preserved mustard green from Yibin in Sichuan) is another classic of Sichuanese cuisine. Bar Shu's was very well made with the beans blistered from a very hot wok, but still crunchy. I use ya çai (known as zacai in Japan) in my Japanese cooking, and I love the crunchy texture and savoury quality it brings to dishes.  With the minced pork and beans, it made a great combination of textures and flavours.

Finally mabodofu, or "Pock-marked Old Woman's Beancurd" (£9.90), consisted of little cubes of tofu with minced pork in a fiery Sichuanese pepper sauce which was rich, sweet and sour at the same time. This Sichuanese dish is hugely popular in Japan, where a much more delicate version is usually seen.

What We Drank: We share a bottle of 2011 Alsatian Gewürztraminer by Domaine Gocker (£34.90). This was a very quaffable Alsatian wine with a perfumed nose of lychee, and on the tongue had flavours of peach and apricot. It went particularly well with our spicy dishes.

Whites and reds wines start from £23.90 (the house red and white are a Merlot and a Sauvignon Blanc, both from  Reserve de Rafegue, Languedoc, France). There is also a range of Chinese wines and sakes. Champagnes include a very reasonably priced Drappier NV for £49 and Veuve Clicquot for £69.

Likes: Delicious Sichuanese food, cooked with skill and finesse. The serving staff are truly knowledgeable about the food and can help select a very well balanced Sichuanese menu if asked. I enjoyed every dish we sampled, and would be hard-pressed to fault any of them.  Tap water is freely available and frequently topped up.

Dislikes: None

Verdict: Probably one of the best Chinese meals I have eaten in recent years, Bar Shu is my new favourite Sichuanese restaurant in London. Very highly recommended.

Baiwei: Affordable and Tasty Sichuanese Food in Chinatown

Name: Baiwei

Where: 8 Little Newport Street, London, WC2H 7JJ

Cost: Starters/appetizers from £4.90, mains from £6.50, average spend per person £20 or less excl. drinks

About: Baiwei (100 Flavours in Mandarin), is the latest venture by successful restaurateur Shao Wei, who introduced us to Barshu, Bashan (reviewed here) and Baozi Inn in Soho, with food consultancy by writer and Chinese food specialist Fuschia Dunlop.

Baiwei is the most casual and also the most affordable addition to the group. Situated in a tiny townhouse on Little Newport Street between Leicester Square and Charing Cross Road, the restaurant stretches across a number of tiny rooms and floors. Most of the rooms fit no more than two tables, and the walls are dotted with hand-painted images from the Mao era. It specialises in comfort food from Sichuan and northern China.

Service is efficient, fast and helpful – our waitress was very enthusiastic to explanation all our queries (there were many!) on the various dishes on the menu. I rarely come across a menu which intrigues me as much as to make me want to try most of its dishes – Baiwei’s was certainly one.

What We Ate: One of Baiwei’s signature dishes, the catfish with sizzling chilli oil (£8.90), actually made from fresh cod on our visit, was served in a huge earthenware pot in chillied oil and beans sprouts, the cod was succulent and delectably flavoured with cooling, lip numbing Sichuanese pink peppercorns. A delicious and umami-laden dish.

Smacked cucumbers with garlic and fresh coriander (£4.90) is a favourite of mine and a must for any Sichuanese meals – Baiwei’s did not disappoint, it was a refreshing, cooling accompaniment to the other hotter, spicier dishes.

The twice-cooked belly pork with black bean and chilli (8.90) stir-fried with peppers and leek was also flavoursome and tender.

Another Sichuanese favourite is the fish fragrant pork slivers (£8.90) with picked chilli, ginger, garlic and spring onion. This was very good, with mildly hot and refreshing sourness and acidity from the fish fragrant sauce.

The spicy stewed beef with tofu knots was both intriguing and well flavoured (£12.90) – the stewing broth had an intense richness with flavours of star anis, cinnamon and Sichuanese peppers, while the brisket beef was meltingly tender and gelatinous, a real joy.

However the tofu knots had a chewy and unfortunate stale flavour about them – this is something I sometimes encounter in Chinese dishes with deep-fried tofu as factories will sometimes re-use oil which should have been discarded for deep-frying. This stale flavour can be partially avoided by rinsing the tofu in running boiling water before cooking, something I always do when cooking deep-fried tofu.

The Northern Chinese dish of spicy sizzling lamb with cumin (£14.90) is such as staple and one I nearly always order. Baiwei's take was good despite being served with green peppers rather than green chillies as described on their menu (none the worse for that though in my opinion).

To accompany this protein-chilli laden feast, we had our token vegetable dish - dry fried green beans with minced pork and preserved mustard greens (£8.90), which was a perfect example of its kind and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

What We Drank: We enjoyed brown rice tea at £2 per person. The restaurant has a limited drinks menu with soft drinks and juices at £2.50 per glass, bottled water at £2.50, and one beer Tsing Tao for £3.50 a bottle.

Likes: The menu is large and well-illustrated, with a good range of Sichuanese, Hunanese and Northern Chinese dishes, with abundant dried and fresh chillies, Sichuan pepper, garlic and gelatinous cuts of meat.  Service is friendly and informative. 

Dislikes: Drinks menu is a tad limited – a glass of Coke for £2.50 is a little steep too. Tap water should be offered free of charge.

Verdict: A good & very affordable addition to the growing number of Sichuanese restaurants in Chinatown, introducing Londoners to regional Chinese dishes beyond the more familiar Cantonese staples. Recommended.

Getting Hot Under the Collar at Er Mei!

Words & Photography by Florentyna Leow and Luiz Hara

Name: Er Mei (Former Empress of Sichuan)

Where: 6-7 Lisle Street London WC2H 7BG Tel: 0207-734-8128 http://www.ermei.co.uk/

Cost: £2 - £31.50 for starters; approximately £8 - £30 for mains (seafood mains are priced around £20 to £30 but these are sharing platters).

About: Er Mei is a Sichuanese restaurant on Lisle Street, a stone's throw away from the Prince of Charles Cinema behind Chinatown. We previously reviewed it when it used to be known as the Empress of Sichuan (see review here), but a change of ownership brought about their new name as well as a new head chef, Yi Ge, and a few additions to the menu. We had a splendid meal at the Empress of Sichuan in 2010, but does Er Mei live up to the standard set by its predecessor?

With an extensive list of enticing dishes to choose from, we spent a long while debating over our choices but eventually decided to order a completely different meal from the one we enjoyed on our last visit. In fact, there we so many dishes we wanted to try that we ended up requesting smaller-sized portions of the main dishes for the purposes of this review. The starters looked the most intriguing, and our consensus afterwards was that you could certainly have a very fine meal consisting of their many appetisers alone.

What We Ate: We began with one of the hot starters, the Sichuan-style Grilled Lamb Skewer. At £2.00 per skewer, it was a real bargain – incredibly flavourful and tender and well seasoned with cumin, garlic, chilli, spring onions and whole Sichuan peppercorns. I would have happily had a dinner consisting of several skewers and a bowl of rice.

The Marinated Chicken Slices in Spicy Sauce @£7.50 is a dish I have fond memories of – when I used to live near King's Cross, I would often stop by Chilli Cool for this starter alone. Er Mei's rendition is one of the most memorable versions I have tasted yet – cool, refreshing slices of thigh meat drenched in a subtly spicy soy sauce-based dressing with a numbing kick from Sichuan peppercorns, showered with crushed peanuts and garlic pieces both fried and raw.

The Pork Belly Slices with Garlic and Chilli Sauce (£7.50) was also quite delicious, albeit a little salty for my taste. We both agreed that given a choice we would choose the chicken over the pork belly; however, either would make a good starter.

The only starter that we didn't enjoy was the Marinated Cucumber with Fragrant Sesame Paste, which was poor value at £6.00 a plate. While the cucumber alone was a good palate cleanser, it hadn't been marinated, but simply sliced and presented on a platter, with a sub-par sesame dressing poured over it. It was disappointing.

Our main dishes were generally well-executed and almost any of them would have been perfect for sharing between two for a meal. The Ma Po Tofu (£9.50) was an enjoyable version of a Sichuanese classic, with a slow, tingling burn from the Sichuan pepper. In retrospect, I would have to agree with my dining companion who pointed out that it could have used more flavour than spiciness – perhaps a little more chilli bean paste could solve this problem.

Our next dish was a slight mistake on our part – we ordered the Sea-Spiced Three Vegetables (£10.00), thinking it referred to a variation on the famous fish-fragrant aubergine dish. Instead, the fish-fragrant aubergine dish was listed in English as 'Spicy Aubergine With Minced Meat' in case you would like to order it on your visit.

'Sea-spiced,' according to our waitress referred to the oyster sauce used in the dish we ordered. What arrived on our table was actually a more Northern Chinese-style dish of juicy, deep-fried aubergines, potatoes and red peppers tossed in a sweet, thick, glossy sauce. While it was well done, both of us thought it could have used a little balancing acidity (vinegar) to freshen up the dish and reduce the sauce’s gloopiness.

Er Mei's Kung Pao Chicken (£12.80) was an excellent version of this popular dish, with the addition of peanuts and Sichuan peppercorns that lent it a more traditional touch.

Our waitress enthusiastically recommended that we order the ‘Chilli Cod with Coriander and Onions’ (£25), and we were very glad to have taken her at her word – this was one of the best dishes of the night. Thin slices of deep-fried cod, rich and buttery within and crunchy without; sweet, crisp cubes of onions and red pepper; the flavour of the umami-rich fermented black beans permeating each bite. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. The seafood mains were generally on the expensive side, and this was no different, but I would gladly order it again.

We decided to order a dish from their special New Year's Menu – the Red & Green Chilli Pig's Joint (£15.80) – this was utterly delicious. What would normally be such a rich and heavy cut of meat when braised turned out to be surprisingly refreshing when bathed in a tangy, flavourful sauce. Do not miss the skin and other parts surrounding the meat – it was not fatty, but tender and gelatinous, and a real joy to eat.

What We Drank: We had a pot of hot Chinese tea (£1.50 per person), which went down well with our meal. Be warned that their menu does not list all the varieties of tea available, even in Chinese. Instead of the usual jasmine tea, try asking for Tie Guan Yin (Iron Goddess) or Pu-er tea – both are oolong teas, great for washing down a rich meal!

Er Mei also has a respectable selection of wines to choose from – 10 reds, 13 whites and 2 roses. Their house red and white wines are a mere £15.90 per bottle, and there are 4 other wines on the list which are priced below £20. Tiger or Tsing Tsao beers priced at £3.60, while Sunlik draft beer cost £2.50 for a half and £4.50 for a pint.

Likes: The cooking is good and occasionally stunning – the chilli cod, lamb skewer and marinated chicken point to some magic happening in the kitchen.

Dislikes: Skip the cucumber.

Verdict: Not your average cheap-and-cheerful Chinese joint, Er Mei is probably one of the best Sichuanese restaurants in London. Highly recommended.